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Rainy season is cranking up. Everyone is excited and thankful that wehave had few early showers. The birds are singing every morning andevening. One bird sounds like a water pipe. Grasshoppers are flying,and those crazy flying beetles are everywhere at night. You here them hittingyour house at night. They are in your hair, your covers, and circling any light source. Thankfully it is not like our fellow missionary, who was wrestling last night with46 beetles in her room!!! She counted them. I used to get all whackedabout them. Now I just grab them out of my hair and throw them on the tilefloor. Life with bugs changes you. It really has been very dry here in Honduras.Other areas of the country had been getting some rains, but we werenot getting anything here in our little corner of the world. Even though therains we have gotten have birthed the beetles, we are thankful for what we have received,

We have discovered that even though electricity is very nice, water isnecessary for life. I know, being from the States, that it is hard tothink about not having electricity. We just call the electriccompany, and they come quickly and turn it back on. We havediscovered that we can live without electricity, but water is mandatory.

Three of our PTC girls are going to the public school now. There are about 100 children at the school, including thekindergarten and preschool. This week, when we sat down to lunch,our girl from public school told us that the teacherasked them to bring a coke bottle of water to school. There is nowater for them except for the rationed 3 gallons the households getdaily from the community water project early in the morning. Withthose three gallons families have to wash their kids, wash theirclothes and have drinking water and water to cook with. This is noteven enough. Today, I was washing my clothes by hand. It took me twolarge rubber-made trashcan tubs to get my weekly clothes clean .

Rosa and Lina told me a month ago that the water situation in ourcommunity was bad, but now it is getting critical. I decided to getthe workers to dig a connection spigot from our church to the gate atthe fence, so people could get drinking water from our well.Also this week we took a 5 gallon water jug with the dispenser thatwas in our mission house to the little public school. When I arrived I sawthe coke bottles and they had water in them but it wasn't even clear at all. It broke my heart to know that I have water and the children of the community are drinking this water.We will keep the blue water jugs changed everyday. Please pray about how we canget more water here for this community. There has to be an answer to this situation. There were 7 families including ours 23 years ago and water was an issue then. At that time in our mission life, we were catching water from the roof for mycooking water. Now, there are almost 200 families here. They havehad various water projects, but the projects can't keep up with thegrowth in our community. They need a well.

The girls and I were talking last night in devotions. Our communityneeds a lot of things, but the main need is to have Jesus. He is themost necessary thing we need for life. They need Jesus so they willnever thirst again. He knows what we need, knows what our communityneeds. Please continue to pray for a solution for El Obispo and a revival for this mountain.

House number 5 is now open for business. Crosspointe Church in Valdosta, has helped us with this project. We have 4 of our little girls in there as of this week. Kelsey McHugh is in charge of them. I don't know who is having a better time, the girls or Kelsey. She was telling me tonight how they just started a memorized prayer at bedtime and they all wanted to pray in English, except of course our new little one. Kelsey was so moved by their prayers that she was near tears telling me about it. Pray for Kelsey. The girls she has are great, but they are little and it is a huge undertaking for this young missionary. So proud of her.

There are 4 boys in the House of Nain. Three of them are in the bi-lingual school and Wesley and Suzanne are the caretakers of these boys. The smallest one will run for president this next year. Wesley ran inside the hardware store to get some supplies. The little 3 year old slipped into the front seat and grabbed the keys to the ignition to turn them. Wesley said, "No, don't touch", in Spanish. A phrase he had to learn first off with this boy. Wesley in earnest, started explaining in English why he wasn't to touch the keys. The 3 year old looked at him and said in Spanish, "Well don't cry about it". He is hysterical and very attached to Mr. Wesley.

Ken and Katrina are back for the next 6 weeks. They are a huge help with the girls, and a wonderful help to me running errands so I don't have to.

We are planting coffee plants again. We are planning to have about 6000 planted on our farm and House of Nain. It is so wonderful to watch this process begin. A local coffee shop located at different locations in South GA called RED OWL will begin to feature our coffee. I will send photos. Exciting times.

Please Pray for Rain and for sufficient water,Pray for permanent water solutions, and everlasting spiritual water from the well that never runs dry. Pray for a revival here on this mountain.Pray for our girls and our staff to be aware of our community and pray accordinglyPray for our girls, who are practicing for more 5 K races this summer.

They are excited to be able to attend these races. Pray for the teacherswho are helping train our girls. Pray for the teachers that are teaching our girls after school dance, batontwirling, and tumbling.

Thanks for all the prayers and gifts. Thanks to all of our teams who have worked liked Trojans this year. Pray for us to be more aware of our neighbors. Blessings, from the Extremely Thankful Honduran MOM

April 14, 2018

I know I just wrote already this week, then today happened and I just want to say I appreciate everyone of you all who pray for us. This is what happened yesterday.

So today, we went to the bank to get the bankbooks of two of our girls who graduated from the farm. The goal of today was to get these accounts that were established 15 years ago, changed into adult accounts. Everything was going along fine. I looked over to one of the girls and her baby looked like she was trying everything she could not to fall asleep. Her head was just bobbing around. We all just laughed and continued with our project of the paperwork needed to get the deed done. I was handed back the old bankbook by the one of the bank assistants, and they pointed me in the direction to cancel this old bankbook at the teller window. Our older girl was going to fill out her forms for her new account after I did my part. Rosa and I had a hundred errands and so I was thrilled that the line was not long and that I was almost to the head of the line at the bank. Then I heard a scream. "Mama, come and help us". I thought to myself, "Goodness we are in a place of business, why are they hollering?" I tried to looked around the folks who were in line, and saw the baby's mom crying hysterically and waving for me to come and do something. Then Rosa, who is always composed, was screaming to come and help. The rest was a blur. I ran over there, snatched up the baby and saw that she was listless and blue. There was a lady to my right who was praying in a fierce way and very loud. I praise God for this woman who was interceding for my girls and for me. I ran my finger down the baby's throat to make sure she wasn't choking. Her eyes were closed and I turned her upside down, and hit her between her shoulders, and she breathed in. I flipped her back around and she was with eyes open, but they were closing again. I blew in her face, and she didn't like that. The guy next to me snatched her from me and tried to give her mouth, but she was so listless he could keep her head from flopping around he could not. We worked together and I blew into her mouth, not knowing if we were doing anything at all. I finally remembered that once when my Aunt Bess who lived alone told me a story about getting choked on chips. She flung herself on the arm of her padded sofa on her stomach and she regained her breath. I thought at the time that was pretty intense thinking. Well I didn't do that, but I took my finger tips and pressed in and upward on her stomach. Then I would raise her arms, while the other guy helped me. I kept stretching her arms up, short pushes with my fingertips and she would catch her breath. Then I just started blowing hard in her face and she would catch her breath.

Meanwhile, the mom had lost it. The manager of the bank told me to go with the guard and they took us to his truck that was waiting with his driver and drove us to a clinic. When the truck stopped, I grabbed the baby, and the mom while we ran inside the clinic and told the nurse that the baby wasn't breathing well. The young nurse rushed me to a room and they rolled in a tall oxygen tank and plugged the baby up to an oxygen mask. Zapped her up with an IV and the doctor raced in and saw that it was me and ask if this was one of my girls. He used to work at the public hospital, but now he has built his own little private hospital. I said weakly said, "yes", and thought later "second generation". Then he was all business occupied with the baby and told us that the baby was having a type of seizure. He said she had a high fever and so under his instruction the nurse, put medicine in the IV for seizures for a 9 month old and medicine to drop the baby's temperature. Everything happened so fast. I left my purse, my phone, everything in the bank. I knew Rosa would get it, but I couldn't call her to tell her where we were or what was happening. The bank manager had left the bank and came back into the emergency room with us and said "Listen if I can do anything else let me know". I told him how grateful we were for getting us to this clinic with his driver and that we appreciated his staff and clients there at the bank being so helpful at our time of need. I asked him if he tell would tell Rosa where we were.

The baby and the mom finally got settled down and were okay. So many wonderful things happened during this disaster. The first and foremost is that God showed me again just how amazing He is. The girls who were in the bank getting their affairs in order had come to my house the day before ready to go to the bank like we had planned. But because Rosa couldn't come that day, I postponed going to the bank yesterday and planned it for today. The baby's mom lives way back in the woods and very far away and has no phone or transportation, except for walking. The baby had gotten up with a with a fever the next morning, which was today. The mom gave her teething baby some tylenol, like 98 percent of the moms out there would have done, and continued her plans to go the bank. The baby had no cough or other symptoms and has been a healthy baby up to this point. However, if we had gone to the bank the day before, the mom and baby would have been in their home in the woods when this happened with no phone or close neighbor. If they had gotten miffed yesterday about the change of plans, and decided not to come, they would have been home, again with the same outcome of a possible disaster.

Today, the baby is fine. She is taking medicine and sees the doctor on Tuesday and this precious little family decided to spend the night with me. I really voted for them to stay the night in the hospital, but we settled on a night at mom's, who is close to the hospital than the wilds of Santa Cruz de Rosario. God made a way. I have cried, laughed, almost collapsed one time and generally have been through the wringer with this day. But what I have found yet again, that God continues to overwhelm me with His goodness. I have been amazed at how things are set into place by God for our good. I had told the doctor I was too old to still be doing all this, but apparently I am not. He knows where I am supposed to be. Please to continue to pray for baby and the mom. Life is so tremendously fragile. Like this precious baby, a genuine replica of her mom, teething and toddling one moment, and the next holding on to life like a transparent silken thread. God showed me once again today, how He is so totally in charge of this world and orchestrates this wild band of humans to make the sound of life a little sweeter today.

This past week, I went to Tegucigalpa with Mirian, my dear friend and board member of our Honduran side of our ministry. She is a great lawyer with a huge heart. I am so thankful for all of her knowledge and kindness towards the girls and me. It was a long drive and we were both very tired from getting up so early to travel. I was reading and she was napping. I finished a book on the trip and began to start another, when I realized that we were supposed to get off at this stop!!! I woke up Mirian and we literally ran off the bus, and got into a cab. I had to get my residency card renewed at the immigration office, a title for a car, and some hard to find welding wire for Wesley to finish gates and fences we are building around the boy's home and around the mission house

Everything went quickly for me and my residency card and Mirian was getting the new residency cards of Wesley and Suzanne. We left there quickly and went to our next destination, which was basically to the tag office. I had lost a title to a vehicle we owned. We spent two weeks getting everything checked in our police station which includes statements. Then we had to go to the capital to get the other part of the process completed. There were tons of people there!!! We would have been the last out of about 75 people. However, I am what they call the "3rd age". It sounds softer than "elderly". I love this country! So because of that "3rd age" status, I was able to go to the front of the line of three very long lines! I got the paperwork to get the new title, and we were off to the remote small store that carried limited, hard to find items of hardware which included a special kind of welding wire. Driving around Tegucigalpa is really complicated these days. The capital city is getting a new transit system and new roads. However, all the old road signs are down. Our taxi driver was even a little confused. We got to our destination and the owner of the store told us that the wire had just gotten there that morning. We were able to get all of our errands done and return to our home at the mission before dark. God prepared the way and every step we took for us to get everything we needed.

We are in a rainy season!!! Our area needed a lot of water. We are so thankful for the rains that have been coming every day. We are planning to transplant 3000 coffee trees! Last year we had to cut down a lot of our trees on our farm because they were infected with tiny beetles. I cried when I saw those trees come down, but today is a new day. Now we are planting new coffee trees in this area of former destruction. It is looking really great.

The girls are finishing up the school year. They have been running in some 5K runs this year. Jake and Rachael, the directors of the school that my girls attend, and some of the other teachers from Abundant Life School have been coaching the girls on how to compete in these marathons. It has been a wonderful opportunity for the girls to be participating in these activities. It has helped them in their confidence as well as their physical stamina. Before, in our school here at the mission, the girls were somewhat isolated. It was hard for our girls to interact with the children of the community being a part of a community of English speakers. But now they are going on excursions with Honduran and North American groups to further their education on every level. It is a new day.

I have settled into the former mission house and all the teams have been doing great staying at my house. I guess it is my version of the game "Fruit Basket Turn Over". I have enlarged the kitchen area by extending the back porch. The sink at the former mission house was way to high for the girls to help wash dishes. Wesley Jarrard, director of our boy's home, Casa de Nain, made us some beautiful new cabinets and sink area. The girls take turns by houses every day helping me cook in the morning for breakfast. They come very early in the morning at 4:15 a.m. back to "Mom's" house. Then, at lunch, we have a smaller group to prepare food for, because the girls eat lunch at school. The girls and I, who work at breakfast, prepare a lunch for the girls to take to school. We make a snack as well as breakfast for the girls. There have been some new changes in the way we operate the farm, but they are good changes.

Wesley and Suzanne Jarrard, have 4 boys at Casa de Nain. They have worked like slaves getting the place fixed up to be ready for the boys. Wesley set up a workshop to work on beds and cabinets for the boys. They both have done a tremendous job. They have been doing a lot of farming and they are now planting more coffee too. They are putting up new fences around the farm where the live. Their boys are sponsored to go to the Abundant Life Bi-lingual School. The four boys are there Monday-Friday and then they go home to their families on the week-ends. They also spend time at family's home during school holidays. We are so excited by this new development of how we attend to children of Honduras. We had a baptismal service the other day at the river, and one of the first boys from Casa de Nain was baptized. A new beginning.

We are thankful for our new house, number 5, that my church in Valdosta helped to build. Other teams worked on the painting and installing the electricity. Kelsey McHugh is in charge of house five and has the "Littles". She will have a new position here and at the Abundant Life School. She will be teaching math classes for half days and then working with our mission for the other part of the day. She has been a great resource for me and a tremendous help with the little girls. Also, Kelsey has been helping motivate me to finish two books, I have been writing forever. One is a children's book, that I wrote in a few hours. Years ago I was going to post it to my blog, but felt like it wasn't the time to do so. The other is an on going book about how the ministry got started. Kelsey has been my cheerleader to continue writing, along with Mary Langston and Rachael Compaan. All of them are editing along the way with my constant rewrites. They are very kind. :)

I guess we all love new things. Sometimes we all like to learn new things, if we can get beyond the old things in our lives. Even though the mission house is 20 years old, it is new to me. Our fences are new, House five is new, we have a new greenhouse, new coffee plants, three new girls and 4 new boys. I heard one time that new changes in life are meant for us to grow. If that is the case, we are all growing like crazy around here. We are thankful that the mercies of the Lord are new every morning. Everyday here brings something new to us. I am constantly amazed at all the newI am thankful for the new growth that I am seeing in our mission in the girls and in me. I am thankful for the new teams that are coming this year, and for our regulars, who have become part of our Such is the Kingdom family for so many years. So many have prayed to get us this far.

Thanks to Ken and Katrina, who took breakfast detail Monday-Thursday, in the 3rd watch of the night. They were here and cooked, painted, picked-up and dropped off people and things. I appreciate all the work they did for the 7 weeks they were here. Everything looks so much better with a new coat of paint.

Thanks to all of you who continue to pray and support our Such in the Kingdom mission of Project Talitha Cumi and Project Casa de Nain. We are all so blessed. We have another baby in the house. Her name is Irma, and her mom is extremely young. Please be praying for both mom and baby. Blessings from All the girls of SIKM and the New Every Morning, Honduran MOM

Project Talitha Cumi - Such is the Kingdom Ministries

This is an orphanage that ministers to the abused and abandoned children of Honduras. Our goal is to raise girls in a Godly environment and educate them so that they might go out into the country of Honduras and influence it for the kingdom of God.